Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, almost hanged in Indonesia, reaches home. human trafficking news
The Filipino woman who spent nearly 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad has returned home, where she now awaits possible pardon in a women’s prison.
Mary Jane Veloso, 39, landed at Manila airport early Wednesday after an extradition agreement between the two countries ended the threat of her execution, as the Philippines has long abolished the death penalty.
The mother of two was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to death after 2.6 kilograms (5.7 lb) of heroin was found in her suitcase.
She was flown home without handcuffs and escorted by Filipino corrections officers on an overnight commercial flight after the Jakarta ceremony marking “the end of a harrowing chapter in Veloso’s life,” the Bureau of Corrections said in a statement.
Veloso was under heavy security upon her arrival at the airport and was taken straight to a prison facility for women. Her family and dozens of supporters chanting “Clemency for Mary Jane” and “Free, Free Mary Jane” who waited outside the terminal failed to greet Veloso upon her arrival.
Prison guards later allowed Veloso’s family to spend time with him. Veloso’s two sons ran towards him and hugged him tightly as soon as they met him inside the prison complex.
“I hope that our President (Ferdinand Marcos) will grant me clemency so that I can go back to my family. “I spent 15 years in an Indonesian prison for something I didn’t do,” an emotional Veloso, who is technically still serving a life sentence, told reporters after a medical examination at a Manila prison.
victim of trafficking
The conviction and death sentence of a single mother of two sons sparked outrage in the Philippines.
She traveled to Indonesia where a recruiter, Maria Cristina Sergio, reportedly told her that a job as a domestic maid was waiting for her. Sergio also allegedly provided the suitcase where the drugs were found.
In 2015, Indonesia transferred Veloso to an island prison, where he and eight other drug convicts were to be executed despite objections from their home countries Australia, Brazil, France, Ghana and Nigeria.
Indonesia executed the others but Veloso was granted a stay of execution because Sergio had been arrested in the Philippines two days earlier. He is accused of human trafficking and Veloso was named as a prosecution witness in the case.
Veloso became a poster child for her country’s 10 million-strong economic diaspora, many of whom take jobs as domestic workers abroad to escape poverty at home.
Marcos said last month that Veloso’s story resonates in the Philippines as “a mother trapped in poverty who made a desperate choice that changed the course of her life”.
In a statement on Wednesday, Marcos thanked Indonesia for returning custody of Veloso, but made no mention of an apology or clemency.
Under the agreement, Veloso’s life sentence now falls within the Philippines’ jurisdiction, including the right to grant “pardons, amnesty, amnesty and similar measures”.
“Certainly, it is under consideration,” Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez told reporters on Wednesday. He said Veloso’s clemency bid would be “seriously studied”.
If she is not pardoned, Vasquez said, she will begin serving her life sentence.
The Indonesian government has said it will respect any decision of Manila.
The Veloso deal includes a “reciprocity” provision. The agreement states, “If Indonesia requests similar assistance in the future, the Philippines will fulfill such request.”
There is intense press speculation that Indonesia will seek the custody of Australian Gregor Johan Haas, detained on drug charges in the Philippines earlier this year.
He is also being sought in Jakarta in a drug trafficking case, for which he could face the death penalty.
Data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections last month showed about 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners. The last time Indonesia executed a citizen and three foreigners was in July 2016.
A man who spent nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons on heroin trafficking charges returned to Australia on Sunday under a deal between five Australian governments.
